recording and overdubbing under firmware 1.10
by aewill on 2013-03-10 06:29:20

Dear stagescape users,

yesterday we succeeded in recording overdub tracks using the Stagescape M20d unit without any additional hardware.

This topic had already been addressed in other threads of this forum, but some difficulties seemed to remain.

We proceeded like this:

- first, we recorded the basic tracks (eg drums, bass, piano) on SD-card using the regular "record" feature, selecting the option to record single tracks AND MainOutMix as well

- via media player, we played back our recording from SD-card (only the MainOutMix wave file) and routed the media player to monitor outputs C & D (because A & B were already in use, but they should do as well)

- using two short XLR-female to male patch cables (or to 1/4-inch), we connected the monitor outputs to two inputs (in this case, 11&12; but it should work as well using any other pair of inputs including the stereo aux 1/8-inch input for channels 17&18)

- from the recording menu, we now created a new directory on a USB-Stick plugged into the USB host slot

Using the above configuration, it is possible to play back the basic tracks first recorded while overdubbing up to sixteen channels at a time, but usually you'll need to record only one or two additional instruments (solo, vocals etc.). You can create different directories on your USB-stick to record different overdubs one at a time, always using the same basic tracks from your SD-card. When overdubbing tracks via microphone, you can rout the monitor outputs to in-ear-monitors instead.

At home/in your studio you can finally import all soundfiles into your DAW, realigning the MainOutMix wave files from your SD-card (basic tracks) and USB-stick (overdubs) to place your overdubs at the right position within your song.

A good idea would be to save your settings under a separate configuration to distinguish them more easily from your live mixing configurations.

While this method works, it's obviously a rather clumsy way to record overdubs; there's still the hope that future firmware updates will enable us to use multitrack recording and overdubbing in a more elegant manner.

-aew

Re: recording and overdubbing under firmware 1.10
by selbalicious on 2013-03-10 09:53:24

Genius! this just shows: where there's a will there's a way.

Great job! I hope to get one of these puppies in the coming months (before starting up live performance again in June) and I was wondering this exact thing. I always like to have multiple purposes "use cases" for the gear I buy and I was kind of hoping to be able to use it in the studio a little more elegantly than the typical "one-off" type of recording (i.e., no overdubs).

I had previously thought that the M20d could be used as an "audio interface" device which would totally seal the deal for me in terms of having it provide two concrete uses (live vs. studio), but in the posts I've read, it seems that the drivers are not good enough or fast enough for this purpose. The latency via USB is too great. Hopefully that will change also...because then in the studio you would have true overdubbing capability simply by using it as an audio interface. I don't quite understand why, with good ASIO drivers, this unit wouldn't have adequate throughput for use as an audio interface. Firewire devices of similar nature have NO problems streaming that much digital audio down the pipe (but I realize they are two completely different animals with different issues to deal with).

Anyway...bravo for figuring out a way. You've inspired us all!!

Sincerely,

Kevin B. Selby

Re: recording and overdubbing under firmware 1.10
by mrose101 on 2013-03-14 12:08:10

tried this method and it worked fine except getting the media player volume loud enough in the mix ....

Re: recording and overdubbing under firmware 1.10
by ArneLine6 on 2013-03-14 13:29:09

This is very interesting. Good work !

You could use a computer to normalize your "Main Out" file for playback in the media player. Or you could do a workaround like this: In Deep Tweak view for the Media player select the "Comp" tab. If turn up the "Output Gain" parameter you get plenty additional gain and as long as you do not change the other parameters the sound does not change.

The information above may not be current, and you should direct questions to the current forum or review the manual.